Chapter 9 Section 9 My Self-taught History: Middle School

The first series of my autobiography Section 9 My Self-taught History: Middle School Seven, five and a half years of middle school In the summer of the year when I was fourteen (1906), I was admitted to the "Shuntian Middle School" (the address is at the Bingjiangju outside Di'anmen).Although this is not the first middle school established in Beijing, it is a brother of the first established "Wucheng Middle School". "Five cities" refers to the cities in Beijing; "Shuntian" refers to Shuntianfu (Jingzhao).Chen Bi, a native of Fujian, first served as the censor of Wucheng and founded Wucheng Middle School; later he was the Governor of Shuntian Prefecture and established Shuntian Middle School.Mr. Wang Shaolian (born in Tianjin, who studied in the British Navy with Wu Guangjian) served as the head teacher of foreign languages ​​in the two schools.Most of the Chinese language teaching is from Fujian people. For example, Lin Shu (Qinnan) is the main teacher in Wucheng, while Mr. Chen (whose name is forgotten) is the main teacher in our school. At that time, the school was initially established, and there was no certain standard for the subject level.Many elementary schools were of a higher level than today's middle schools, and it seemed difficult to distinguish middle schools from universities at that time.Some of my classmates were nearly twice as old as I was—I was fourteen and he was twenty-seven.Although there are many students who take classes with our younger classmates, they can actually be more than enough for our teachers.Their poems, ancient prose, and four-six parallel prose are all very good, and then they pay attention to "Selected Studies" "Selected Works of Zhaoming".But because seeking a way out (Gongsheng, Juren, Jinshi) has to go through the school, some opportunities happen to be admitted to university, and some unlucky enough to enter middle school. The well-known people in the academic world today, such as Zhang Shenfu (Song Nian) and Tang Yongtong (Xi Yu), are all my old classmates.In terms of grade, they are still behind me; in terms of age, all three of us are the same.I am the youngest in my class.  At that time, most of the reading in the school was concentrated in English and arithmetic.Students' energy and time are spent on this.The older students feel very strenuous; but I have also practiced self-study here.There are four people in my class who are very close to each other.One is Liao Fushen (Waici, Fujian), the second is Wang Yufen (Meizhuang, Beijing), the third is Yao Wanli (Bopeng, Guangdong), and the fourth is me.The four of us were the youngest—Liao and Wang were a year or two older.Under the leadership of Brother Liao, we used to combine self-study.  This combination was mostly due to Brother Liao's kindness.He saw that the young classmates love to play and don't work hard, so he came to encourage us.With the innocence of the boyhood, at the beginning of the marriage, they were quite enthusiastic.I remember that after a very vigorous conversation, the four of us went out together to eat crabs in a restaurant and drink a lot of wine.Brother Liao proposed not to address each other with vulgar titles such as "big brother", "second brother" and "third brother", but to mark each person's shortcomings as a name for each other, so as to be vigilant.Everyone agreed with this proposal, so I asked him to name us one by one.The name he gave Wang was "cowardly"; the name he gave Yao was "violent"; and mine was "ao".Really, those three words are very appropriate.I am proud, needless to say.That Wang is indeed cowardly and somewhat feminine; while Yao is good at running, high jump and football, and he was originally a rough athlete.In the end, he named himself "lazy".This is too modest.He is the most studious one!This is probably because he always feels that what he requires of himself is not enough; and from his self-effacement and laziness, it can be seen that he is diligent.

At that time, each class had a full-time foreign language teacher, and all English, mathematics, and foreign geography in this class were taught in English by him.These foreign language instructors are all from the Tianjin Naval Academy and are disciples of Mr. Wang Shaolian.My class is Mr. Lu (Fuyong).They uphold Mr. Wang's rules, teach seriously, and act in a military style.Of course, the course was not slow, but the progress of our self-study always exceeded what he taught.For example, the English reader Carpenter's Reader (one of the Asian books), when Mr. taught half of the book, Liao had already read the entire book, and I could read two-thirds of it; I have studied the third volume with Liao; the books of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, after Mr. Jing started, Liao can continue to study by himself, and there is no need for Mr. to teach.I can't keep up with him as fast, but with his guidance, I always walk in front of my teacher.Liao did all the exercises, and his cursive calculations were very clear, tidy and pleasing to the eye; I couldn't do it, because there were a lot of corrections in the notebook, the lines were not neatly arranged, and the handwriting was scribbled, which seemed more hectic than him, and the progress was behind him.Liao Zi is a genius, beyond the reach of ordinary people.However, from those experiences back then, I believe that there is no homework that cannot be taught by myself. At the same time, Liao also paid attention to self-study of Chinese.In one semester, he completed the circle of "Yu Cri Tong Jian Ji Lan".Because it is a foreign edition book (at that time, it was called the copper seal, typeface, and lithograph other than woodblock books) the characters are small, and every day is set aside a little time before dinner to write, and the sky is not enough, so I went to the circle After finishing the work, the eyes became short-sighted.It's a pity that he doesn't know how to take care of his body.Here I am different from him.I don't pay attention to the Chinese language: as a rule, I don't read the lecture notes on the Chinese language; as a rule, I don't listen to Mr. Guowen's lectures.I still have my own kung fu, as mentioned later, and rarely read old Chinese books.However, the performance of Chinese composition is not bad, and sometimes it is also ranked first.I always like to make reversing the verdict and refuse to fall into the cliché.Sometimes it can be a surprise victory, and sometimes it is mostly a failure.I remember a 70-year-old teacher Wang hated me very much.After my composition paper, he seriously commented that "likes and dislikes touch people's nature, and disasters will catch the husband's body".Later, a Mr. Fan appreciated me.The comment he gave me was "the words are not shocking and endless".  In the winter of the year I was nineteen (1911), we graduated.A total of five and a half years have passed.Originally there was no five-and-a-half-year middle school system, but this was because the school system was changed once in the middle, which made us suffer.